Louis H. Geser

Additional Information:

It is with great sadness that we share the untimely death of our beloved Louis H Geser,
who died on June 10, 2024. Lou was 63 years old.

Holding the blessing of Lou’s memory close at heart are his wife, Ilene Rosenthal, his
daughters Cara and Amelia Geser, and Lou’s son in law Nathan Calvin, Amelia’s
husband. 

Lou was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just before Thanksgiving 2022, and
throughout his 18 month battle, Lou exhibited his well-known capacity for optimism,
stoicism, and a sense of humor. He managed to push through difficult chemotherapy
treatments to enjoy a summer of remission, a tolerable second round of chemo in the
fall of 2023, and had the complete joy of being fully present at Amelia and Nathan’s
wedding in January, 2024.

Lou was born in Baltimore, MD before his family moved to Lawrenceville, NJ. He
attended Lawrence High and went on to graduate from Rutgers University with a BS in
economics. Lou’s Rutgers years were spent driving the rhythm of the RU Marching
band where he developed lifelong friendships, returning over many years to play with
the RU Alumni Band.

Lou pursued a career in finance, spending 23 years navigating the corporate
transformations from Dreyfus Corp. to Mellon Bank, and finally to Bank of New
York/Mellon. Leading the credit research team, Lou was beloved across the trading,
research, and leadership desks. He inhabited a large, chaotic office filled with papers,
annual reports and research memos. He was widely known to be able to put his fingers
on any document you needed in a moment’s notice with little effort. After retiring in
2012, Lou’s home office was much the same.

Lou continued to nurture his curiosity about the history, business management, and
asset classes to build his own portfolio, traveling around the country to attend annual
meetings, meet with investment partners and get to know small cap, well-run
businesses. While Ilene built a private office for Lou on the second floor of their Yonkers
home, he chose to work from their family room to be close to Ilene’s office – and the
kitchen.

Lou and Ilene met at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York in 1992, and were
married on February 26, 1994. In quick succession, Lou and Ilene became the parents
of Amelia and Cara, moving to a large stone and shingle Victorian home on the
Yonkers/Riverdale border.

Lou was an enthusiastic sports-dad rooting for the Fieldston Field Hockey and Ultimate
Frisbee teams, shouting from the sidelines usually in support of other teammates in
addition to his own daughters. He was a consistent presence at Cara’s theatre
performances and Amelia’s jazz band concerts.

Lou and Ilene continued to be active members of their beloved synagogue, “BJ” on the
Upper West Side of Manhattan. To balance out the grind of Wall Street, Lou belonged
to a series of bands, bringing his drumming skills to a cross-section of musical tastes.
His longest engagement was as a member of the amped-up Americana band, Spuyten
Duyvil. Lou would famously and modestly say "I’m in a band, but I really just hang out
with musicians,” obscuring his diverse and passionate musical talents.

In recent letters to Lou from his dearest friends, Lou has been characterized as highly
empathetic, a person of tremendous humility, intensely curious, generous to a fault, and
a steady friend, always there to listen and offer help.

Lou and Ilene loved to travel with their best friends, Ellen and Eldad. They loved to
gather their large family at their home for holidays and visits. Lou would open their
home to friends at a moment’s notice, always at the ready with his large supply of small
batch bourbon, single malt scotch, or a special bottle of Willamette Valley Vineyards
Pinot Noir. And of course, there’s always a case of San Pellegrino so he could continue
to build out his collection of bottle caps (ask around for more on this.)

Lou and Ilene shared one of the most powerful love stories ever. Each was the others
true best friend; he championed her business, she was his biggest band fan. Lou
always said they were “on a mission” to build a family and a life together that was worth
living every day. And they did just that for 30 beautiful years.